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When the American-Canadian Conservative Coalition (AC3) announced last week it was joining Chris Simcox and the Minuteman Project to develop an internationally supported citizens border watch project patterned after the successful Minuteman Project of Arizona, American and Canadian media and political observers wondered how this historic effort would work.

It was clear from the onset that with both nations sharing a mutual border of over 4,000 miles which are largely unprotected coupled with the release last week of the Canadian Senate Committee on National Security and Defense report which candidly pointed out that Canadian customs agents should carry weapons like their U.S. counterparts to prevent terror threats, time was now of the essence. This joint international effort was more than necessary -- it was imperative. In addition, the report sharply admonished Ottawa and Washington for not doing more to secure the shared border.

September 11, 2001 was a wake up call for both nations, and it has been clear -- even before the release of the Canadian Senate report -- that citizen action was needed in order to set an example for Canadians and Americans on how to protect what many in both nations have called the longest unprotected border in the world.

Canada has glaring weaknesses at its crossings that must be fixed and fixed quickly. If they aren't, they will continue to jeopardize two crucial elements of Canada's nationhood: its economic future, and its national security, stressed the Senate report.

I spoke with a representative of the Canadian border patrol and the representative confirmed the report's findings that the border patrol inspectors currently work with inadequate access to data systems designed to tell them which persons or vehicles might be dangerous and/or involved in illegal activities. Furthermore, while inspectors routinely encounter persons in possession of firearms, they themselves are armed with only batons and pepper spray. They need help. Citizens in America and Canada are more than willing to step to the plate and do their fair share. The time for wishful thinking and pointing out problems or placing blame is over.

That's why AC3 stepped up to the plate. America and Canada share many values so it seemed logical that the joint international effort by AC3 to host the first Michigan/Ontario Minuteman Border Neighborhood Watch meeting the week of July 12, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario becomes the setting for creating a new era of international citizen cooperation.

The primary goal of the group is to recruit and train over 5,000 members and launch the campaign to implement its plans to expand its numbers of trained members to 15,000 across the entire American/Canadian border. It seems only

logical that every border state and province be invited to join in. This is a significant first step in what promises to unfold into a much larger rally of thousands of volunteers being planned for August.

Many have asked why did it take several years since the dreadful assault upon America to wake up the spirit of cooperation of private citizens from both nations. Perhaps, both sides of the border had not seen the intrinsic value of both nations' private citizens realizing we both could not afford to suffer another attack, or a loss of our border's viability.

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